Obadiah Chapter 1

Conversational Yahveh Covenant

¹The Vision of Obadiah

Edom’s Judgment Foretold

The Lord Yahveh says this about Edom;

      we’ve heard the report;

      an ambassador has gone out to the nations to say,

            “To arms, attack Edom.”

         ²“I’ll make you a minor player among the nations

            and utterly despised.

         ³Your arrogance has deceived you,

            you that live high in caves

            and tell yourselves that nobody can bring you down.

         ⁴Though you’ve built high like an eagle

                  and put your nest among the stars,

I’ll bring you down.                                                    Obad 1-4

         ⁵“If thieves came to you at night—

                  what disaster awaits you!—

                  wouldn’t they steal only till they had enough?

            If grape pickers came,

                  wouldn’t they leave some gleanings?

         ⁶But how you’ll be pillaged, Esau,

            and your hidden treasures found!

         ⁷Your allies will force you out of your borders;

            the people at peace with you

                  will turn on you and overpower you;

            the ones you eat with

                  will set up an ambush for you.

                  (You won’t suspect it.)

         ⁸At that time,” Yahveh says, “won’t I destroy

            the wise men out of Edom

            and those with understanding from Esau’s mountain?

         ⁹Your strong troops will be afraid, Teman;

            so everybody from Esau’s mountains

                  will be cut down in the slaughter.                        Obad 5-9

Edom’s Violence Against Israel

¹⁰ “Because of your violence against Jacob your brother,

            you’ll be covered with disgrace and permanently eliminated.

         ¹¹You stood aloof   

            while foreigners cast lots for Jerusalem

                  and strangers entered its gates

                  to carry off its wealth.

            You even joined them.

         ¹²You shouldn’t have gloated over your brother’s misfortune;

            you shouldn’t have celebrated over Judah’s destruction

                  or boasted about his distress.

         ¹³You shouldn’t have entered my people’s gate

                  at the time of their disaster

            or looted their goods during their catastrophe.

         ¹⁴You shouldn’t have stood at the fork in the road

                  to cut down their refugees

            or have betrayed the survivors in their misfortune.   Obad 10-14

Edom’s Destruction, Israel’s Restoration

         ¹⁵“Yahveh’s judgment is coming on all the nations.

            What you’ve done to Israel will be done to you;

            your dealings will come back on your own head.

         ¹⁶You and those nations will drink the same punishment           

                  you swallowed on my holy mountain.

            You’ll all drink till you drown.

         ¹⁷But on Mount Zion some will escape,

                  and it’ll be holy;

            Jacob’s house will return to reclaim its possession.

         ¹⁸Then Jacob’s house will become a fire,

                  Joseph’s house a flame,

                  Esau’s house the stubble.

            They’ll set him on fire and burn him up;

                  there’ll be no survivors in Edom.”

Yahveh has said it.      Obad 15-18

¹⁹ Then my people in the Negev will take over Esau’s mountains;

            the ones in the western foothills will occupy the Philistine plain.

      They’ll take over the fields of Ephraim and Samaria;

            The people of Benjamin will occupy Gilead.

²⁰ Exiles from Israel

            will replace the Phoenicians as far north as Zarephath;

      the captives from Jerusalem that are in Sepharad [north]

            will resettle their towns in the Negev [south].

²¹ All those who were rescued^LXX will go up to Mount Zion

            and extend its dominion over Esau’s mountains.

The kingdom will belong to Yahveh.                                     Obad 19-21

Version by Virgil Warren: christir.org